Breaking Away
by Star of the Sea
Summary: H/Hr Just some random fic. I don't know where I'm going with this. If you think I should continue it, please tell me, otherwise, I'll probably just leave it as a one chapter fic.


Note: This fic started out as a one chapter fic, but then I got all these ideas for more chapters. I hope you enjoy the first chapter! Please R/R!  
  
Additional Note: I wrote this long before reading OotP (which is why it is set in the fifth year), and as the above note states I had intended to make it a longer fic, but now I'm not so sure. I think I'll just leave it as a one chapter fic. I just came across it (I had forgotten to actually put it up, my bad), and I'm putting it up now, just for the hell of it. I might add on later, though I doubt it after having read the fifth book and having completely different thoughts on fanfiction running through my head. But whatever.  
  
Disclaimer: All things Hogwarts and Harry Potter and yadda yadda blah blah belong to the very talented J.K. Rowling. I merely took her creations and made a mockery of them! Muwahahahaha! Okay, maybe not a mockery. Eh. You decide.  
  
Breaking Away  
Chapter 1  
"Play the Game"  
  
  
Harry ran straight for Gryffindor tower. Peeves tried to slow him down as he ran by the trophy room, but Harry's adrenaline was pulsating through him and he nearly knocked Peeves over the staircase. It was getting close to dinner time, and only a few people were in the halls. Lucky for them because otherwise Harry might have caused a few accidents.  
  
He bent down and put his hand on the wall as he caught his breath. "Shoo---shoog---her---qui---" he said panting.  
  
"I'm sorry, dear. That is not the password," said the Fat Lady haughtily.  
  
Harry gulped and straightened up. "Sugar quill," he said as firmly as he could. The portrait hole opened and he jumped on through. He looked around and saw that the common room was empty except for one person and a cat. Hermione was sitting in a large velvet chair reading a small book and stroking Crookshanks who laid lazily in her lap. She gave Harry a quick glance with her eyes and continued to read.  
  
"Where's Ron?" he asked.  
  
"He's in the Astronomy Tower serving detention with Professor Sinistra," said Hermione without looking up. "He shouldn't have gotten so angry during class. Those telescope lenses aren't as simple to fix as a pair of specs."  
  
Harry stood there disappointed. He wanted to speak to Ron and Hermione at the same time, but he couldn't wait much longer. His excitement got the better of him. "Guess what, Hermione. You'll never believe what I just---" Harry stopped because Hermione was no longer paying him any attention, although he wasn't quite sure if she had been in the first place. A large pudgy school owl had just swooped into the tower and landed on the arm of the chair Hermione was sitting in. He dropped a letter on top of Crookshanks and then flew off again. She picked up the letter and examined it before opening it. Harry remained quiet as she read the letter, her serious expression never changing. Then, still clutching the letter, she picked up Crookshanks and started towards the girls' dormitory. "Wait!" Harry said. Hermione paused and turned toward him. "Is something wrong?"  
  
Hermione gave him a pitying smile. "Oh, Harry. You don't want to hear about it."  
  
"No, wait!" he said advancing towards her. "Of course I want to hear. We're friends, right?"  
  
Hermione set Crookshanks down and he steadily walked up the steps. She kept smoothing out the crease in the letter distractedly. The need to tell Hermione about what he had heard left him when he saw the look on her face. For a moment he thought she might start crying. He felt kind of awkward around her for the first time. He had a feeling her problems were no longer about essays or mastering difficult transfiguration spells.  
  
They both stood rooted at their spots for what felt like the longest time to Harry as Hermione contemplated where to start. She finally looked up at him and said, "Want to play some chess?" Hermione didn't wait for an answer and walked over to a board that appeared to have been abandoned in the middle of a rather lackluster game. Harry didn't know what to say, so he just sat across from her as she arranged all the pieces.  
  
Five pieces remained. For the last ten minutes Hermione's knight had been chasing Harry's king around the board. "I don't think either of us is going to win," he said, while Hermione was in deep concentration about where to move her knight next. Then she abruptly picked her knight right off the board. He wriggled around on his horse obviously wanting to be put back down. Hermione paid him no mind.  
  
"See this chess piece, Harry?" she said, shaking him slightly and aggravating him more. "For the longest time he's been trying to get your king. It's obvious that he'll never catch him, yet he still tries. Why is that, Harry?" she asked and actually waited for an answer.  
  
"I---I dunno," he said.  
  
"Because it's a game," she said in a way that suggested she just solved a great riddle. "But there are other players, and the players are put into two teams. The red king belongs with the red queen because it makes sense. The knight just does not understand that!"  
  
"Erm...Hermione. What are you getting at?" Harry asked, starting to get impatient with her.  
  
"But maybe the king doesn't belong with the queen," she continued. "Perhaps the king wants...a bishop!" she said as she snatched up one of her bishops from Harry's captured pieces.  
  
"But wouldn't the king want a red bishop?" That was a question Harry never thought he would say.  
  
"That's the problem! The king doesn't know what he wants!" she said, quite hysterically. "He's supposed to be with the queen and he has this knight chasing after him," she said, while moving around all the pieces to go with her explanation. They started to run away from her, but she was too quick for them. She stopped, while still clutching Harry's king in one hand and one of his knights in the other. Her own knight grasped his horse tightly completely abashed. "The king doesn't want to play anymore," she said waving her fists around, "but they keep checking him. And then the queen is just so nice about it all that the king feels really bad about not accepting the queen's affections." She finally put the pieces down and squashed her cheeks with her hands in frustration.  
  
"I'm sorry the king is having a difficult time," Harry said. He didn't know what else to say.  
  
Hermione looked at him with sympathy in her eyes. "I'm sorry, Harry. I really shouldn't be laying my problems on you. You have enough of your own, what with you-know-who and all."  
  
Harry felt a stinging in his sides. Did she really think that way? Harry leaned slightly forward. "Just because I have problems does not mean you can't come to me with yours. You are always helping me out even when you have more to worry about than I do. You always have the weight of the world on your shoulders, and yet you always take a load off of mine. I only wish I could help you more."  
  
Harry couldn't read her facial reaction correctly. It seemed she was either deeply hurt or suddenly ill. Apparently it was neither because then she did something that caught Harry completely offguard. Hermione leaned over the table and kissed him. She had kissed him before, last year, and then, it had been slightly weird for him. But before, it was just a quick peck on the cheek. This time she kissed him right on the lips.   
  
Hermione sat back down and they looked at each other. Both of them had their eyes open wide with surprise. A series of thoughts just rushed through Harry's head in less than a second. After the initial shock of just being kissed by anyone wore off, Harry realized just how much he wasn't shocked at all. He had always cared about Hermione, but he never thought twice about his feelings for her. Harry never had reason to before. His first crush had been on a girl completely out of his reach, but that's all it had been---a crush. The person he should be with had been next to him all along, and apparently deep down she had felt the same way though neither of them knew until that moment.  
  
Hermione waited for him to say something. She was ready to apologize for doing that, but then Harry smiled at her, and she smiled with relief. "What do we do now?" she asked. He didn't have time to answer. The portrait hole opened and a handful of Gryffindors came pouring in.  
  
"I suppose we should go down to the Great Hall and get some dinner," he said, suddenly aware of how hungry he was.  
  
They got up and as they entered the halls of the castle, Hermione said to Harry, "Didn't you have something to tell me before?"  
  
Harry thought and before he could remember, his thoughts went to Ron. "It wasn't important," he said, as he thought about how to break the news to Ron that Hogwarts' star chess player has finally lost a game.  
  



End file.
